A Wythenshawe sexual predator who had sex with a 13-year-old girl after grooming her online and was found with hundreds of indecent images of children had been jailed.
Matthew Winterbottom, 24, of Thornsgreen Road, admitted sexual activity with a child, grooming and possessing indecent images of a child as he was sentenced on Friday to a 32 months in jail. He was also ordered to sign the Sex Offender’s Register for life.
Winterbottom, who had recently earned a Computer Forensics degree, was arrested after police found information that he had befriended a Nottingham girl on Facebook.
He then admitted to having sex with a 13-year-old girl at a hotel and was found to have befriended numerous other young girls.
Police also discovered that Winterbottom spent between six months and two years grooming teenagers and sending them explicit messages online. There were 5,575 images of child modelling and 913 indecent images found on his computer.
Detective Sergeant David McCulloch said: “Every stroke of a keyboard leaves an indelible fingerprint in cyberspace and we were able to see exactly what he had been up to. Our computer expert was able to retrieve data from Winterbottom’s computer and this supported the intelligence we received.
“The more I looked into what he was doing, the more apparent it became just what lengths he would go to in order to groom young girls.
“His motive for being online in these forums, which often went into the early hours of the morning, is clear: he tried to meet up with and engage in sexual activity with children. In relation to one victim, unfortunately he succeeded.
“He is without doubt a calculated and predatory paedophile.”
Police are encouraging young children not to accept friend requests from strangers and are encouraging parents to check who their children are talking to at all times.
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